Unveiling of 12 photographs of Michel Huneault’s photographic mission on COVID-19

In March 2020, as the COVID-19 virus began spreading throughout Montreal and, with it, insecurity and fear, the McCord Museum gave carte blanche to documentary photographer and visual artist Michel Huneault to document the first impacts of COVID-19 in Montreal.

As a museum of social history and the repository of a vital collection of photographs on the history of Montreal, the institution needed to create an immediate visual archive of the pandemic, as it was unfolding in the city.

From April to July 2020, this photographic mandate took him to the heart of the crisis, to the COVID units of the Verdun and Notre-Dame hospitals, as well as the Maimonides Geriatric Centre.  Outside the hospital walls, he also gathered personal stories and documented the pandemic’s impact on life in the city.

On the eve of the first anniversary of the declaration of the state of health emergency by the government of Quebec, the Museum is unveiling online a first selection of 12 photographs from the series produced by Michel Huneault. An exhibition created by the photographer and the Museum will be presented in the fall of 2022.

Discover the selected photographs